


Two Can Play At This Game

by pendingFriendship



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Background Poly, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, F/F, Fanboys - Freeform, Hogwarts doesn't exist, I'll probably add more tags later, Inter-House Rivalries, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Online Dating, Online Friendship, Online Relationship, Online Romance, Pining, Polyamory, Rare Pairings, Rivalry, Rivals, Roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-09-26 15:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9910016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pendingFriendship/pseuds/pendingFriendship
Summary: So canonically, Ron is quite tall. I'm abusing this piece of information. Be prepared for some ridiculous stuff.Ron and Draco are roommates. They go to the same college and have to learn to live with each other. They dislike each other and see as little of each other as possible, but it would be impossible to avoid each other completely. Luckily for Ron he finds his solace in his two best friends and someone else he considers more than a friend.This was a prompt but putting the prompt here would spoil it if you hadn't already read it, so I won't. It's probably easy to guess tho...





	1. Sixth In Line (in which we meet Ronald Weasley)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vinndetta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinndetta/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [vinndetta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinndetta/pseuds/vinndetta) in the [HPprompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HPprompts) collection. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be honest, I haven't read HP in a while so some of my book references may be rusty. Ironically I'm writing this to satisfy my HP craving. There's actually a lot of helpful advice for actual college or about-to-be college students here, despite my never having been, so feel free to thank Tumblr for the helpful info. I'm just the messenger :) Enjoy!

Ronald Weasley had five older brothers. That was five brothers who had sent agonized texts and moaned through phone calls about university life. He was Prepared. He'd gotten through on a scholarship because he'd won three chess competitions and had decent grades. He'd tried out for a sports team when he was sixteen and surprised everyone, including himself when he got in. He probably wouldn't have done  _well_ without the infinite support but he had gotten the support and thus went down in history (kind of). The prefectship had probably been the clincher for uni though, as usual.

Surprisingly, it had been George who'd given him the best advice when he'd gotten the acceptance letter. "Under no circumstances should you  _ever_ neglect to triple-check your alarms."

Percy had breezed through and though he put  _way_ too much emphasis on the studying bit, (to be honest what his main advice was, was "have fun because you're spending a lot of money to be there, but do your homework because you're spending a lot of money to be there" but Ron liked to exaggerate) he provided a lot of great help too.

Still in hand-me-downs after all this time, he went up to his shared room to start setting up his stuff. He was a couple days early and wasn't expecting his new roommate to be there. This had been information passed down all the way from Bill. First to arrive, first pick of your side of the room.

Speaking of his brothers, he was supposed to be meeting Harry for the tour. Harry was as much his family as all the redheads and so distance meant nada. Hermione was just as determined to stay in contact despite being the super genius she was and being  _years_ ahead. She'd been accepted by all the schools she'd applied to and Ron was sometimes confused as to why out of all the possible subjects she'd picked  _politics_ with a side of development studies, but hey, if he could pick anyone to rule the world it would be her (he thought her first legislation would probably be abolishing slavery of all kinds instead of something ridiculous like building a giant statue of Godric Gryffindor everyone had to make a pilgrimage to at some point in their life) so he just made sure they e-mailed everyday.

 He didn't mean to feel nostalgic, but that didn't stop the feeling being there. He was definitely glad to have less nosy family members around and be able to do his own thing, but all the same... There was something different about  _school-_ away and  _university-_ away.

Nevertheless, he shook it off and hummed something dramatic to himself with a smirk as he opened the door.

Ah, glorious space! His own at last, at least for a few days before his roommate joined him. No brothers and sisters, no mothers, no loud bangs from the twins' room...

A loud bang sounded from a small distance away.  _Too soon,_ he thought bitterly.

He quickly scrutinized the place, picked the bed furthest from the window and dumped his stuff on the floor. Harry wouldn't take too long showing him around, and Ron would probably be able to get him to help unpacking anyway. He tied a jumper round his waist and hurried out.

Before he closed the door, he took a last glance around the room and smiled a small smile to himself. Then he closed the door softly and locked it behind him.


	2. Prince of Fools (In which Ronald Weasley is Awkward)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry it's late but exams are over!!! I have free time again! Anyways this one was short but will pave the way to greater things! Adios, and enjoy!

It was two days later that Ron finally met his roommate. His side of the room was clean (his mother would be proud) and there wasn't anything wrong with Roomie's end. Ron really should've checked Roomie's name, though, because the fright he got was not at all attractive.

He'd gotten fairly comfortable with working out where and which way to go around campus, so navigation wasn't going to hinder him here. He'd found a routine and tried to keep to it. He'd even gotten a food card so he could focus more on working for the money he would need for books and stuff instead of rooting around for crumbs. All that preparation however seemed to be null and void when he heard a random throat coughing from behind him.

In his defence, he had been looking for new Weird Sisters music and a concert was coming up in the next town. He had been eyeing the price and mentally debating if starving was worth it, so he hadn't heard the lock click and the door slide open.

His shriek had been several octaves higher than expected if the slight rounding of eyes was any indication.

"You'd make a terrible spy," said the owner of the eyes.

"And you a good one I suppose, though I don't know how you'd camouflage that hair."

Apparantly the hair was a touchy subject, because Roomie (if Ron presumed correctly) straightened his spine. He looked so rigid he could've been a hatstand. At this thought Ron fought the urge to giggle violently. This didn't go unnoticed either.

"Well it looks as if we're sharing this room," Roomie (so Ron WAS right) said, still cordial though a touch more formal than earlier, as he glanced around. Ron shrugged in reply, still observing him a bit warily.

There was an awkward silence.

"Right..." said Roomie. He cleared his throat. "I guess I'll just..." He waved a hand in the general direction of the opposite end of the room.

"Yeah," was Ron's equally vague reply.

After a minute of tense, awkward silence of not knowing quite what to say but not being able to forget that someone unknown was in the room, Ron stood up, rather abruptly, and made excuses as to why he had to leave the room.

After situating himself in a corner of the library, he thought back to the conversation. "Right," he muttered to himself, as he shuffled through papers covered in attempted notes. "Rule No. 1, don't mention the bloody hair."


	3. King Of Clubs (In which Harry Potter hates everyone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why do all my exes end up haunting me?" Muttered Harry in Ron's ear.  
> Rob frowned. "To be honest, the only person capable of haunting you would be Myrtle and I think you'd tell me if you ever started dating her."

Ron tried to be fair. Just because his roommate's name belonged to an old family and his father had a tainted reputation, they were to live together for a year. This wasn't going to be a repeat of his friendship with Hermione, he told himself firmly. He had risen above pettiness. All the same... He had to bite his tongue a few times to stop himself saying something stupid. Malfoy, Rob discovered as he went back to his-  _their-_ room that evening, was clearly used to being waited on hand and foot. Although he tried to hide it, he didn't know how to make his own bed, much less  _cool a meal._

Ron thought of Fleur Delacour giving up luxury for his his older brother and sighed. "D'you wanna split a pizza, mate?"

Malfoy looked up in surprise. He looked at Ron, calculating. Ron saw the massive walls he'd set up around his heart and gazed back, firm, phone at the ready.

Malfoy either saw the wrong thing, or wasn't sure what to make of Ron. Perhaps he still held a grudge about the hair thing. Whatever it was, Ron tried not to feel disappointed when he let out a stiff "No thanks."

When the pizza arrived, Malfoy took one glance at the pepperoni on top and scrunched up his face. Ron raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment and tried to angle the box to where the dude couldn't see it. Ron knew plenty of vegans, and while Malfoy didn't really come across as a "save the animals" kind of guy, Ron knew people were onions inside- there were always layers to them. [Codename: Percy].

His brother's pearls of wisdom meant he had his life timetabled. While Hermione would doubtless attempt to cram every second of free time into her studies, Ron knew he could rely on her two girlfriends to keep an eye on her. His other best friend, on in the other hand...

"Harry, mate," Ron began as his best friend stumbled into him. "You can't do this to yourself."

"Hey Ron," Harry mumbled, beginning to smile. "How're your freckles?"

Ron had 5 brothers and he'd seen all of them drunk. "Harry... you can't be serious."

Harry turned and vomited into the nearest flowerpot. Ron pinched his nose and waved goodbye to his dreams of reckless uni years. Turns he was more of a mother hen than he thought.

 

Half an hour, some pills and a heck ton of water later, Harry lay on the sofa he'd managed to squidge into his room (his roommate, Dean Thomas, was with his boyfriend more often than not, so Harry took liberties with his side of the room) and gazed at the ceiling.

Ron finished up the essay due before noon (in three hours) and came over to settle down on the floor beside him.

Harry rolled over. "Why do all my exes end up haunting me?" He muttered in Ron's ear.

Rob frowned. "To be honest, the only person capable of haunting you would be Myrtle and I think you'd tell me if you ever started dating her."

Harry sighed, which tickled Ron's ear. "I would but that's not the point. The point is that an ex is on campus, and it's not one that ended well."

Ron shrugged. "Well, maybe you can avoid 'em? They can't be everywhere can they?"

Harry grumbled something Ron didn't quite catch, then rolled over.

"Enjoy your naptime, buddy," said Ron exchanging Harry's fake pen for his real one again. Harry honestly ought to have known better with Weasleys around...

Still, Harry would be fine, Ron sent his essay and through his half-asleep haze, Malfoy had muttered 'good morning' to him. It was good enough.


End file.
